Four members of the Group were in attendance at the 8th International Conference on Micromechanics of Granular Media (Powders and Grains). This hosting of Powders and Grains took place in Montpellier, France on 3-7 July. Two of our PhD students, Zeynep Karatza and Behzad Soltanbeigi, gave well-received oral presentations on their research. In addition, Prof Jin Ooi, Dr Stefanos Papanicolopulos and Dr Kevin Hanley co-authored papers at the conference:

• Hanley, K.J., Huang, X. & O’Sullivan, C.: Comparing the effects of interparticle friction coefficient and intermediate stress ratio on critical-state DEM simulations using Delaunay triangulations. EPJ Web of Conferences 140, 12003 (2017) https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201714012003
• Karatza, Z., Andò, E., Papanicolopulos, S.-A., Viggiani, G. & Ooi, J.Y.: Evolution of particle breakage studied using x-ray tomography and the discrete element method. EPJ Web of Conferences 140, 07013 (2017) https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201714007013
• Soltanbeigi, B., Podlozhnyuk, A., Ooi, J.Y., Kloss, C. & Papanicolopulos, S.-A.: Comparison of multi-sphere and superquadric particle representation for modelling shearing and flow characteristics of granular assemblies. EPJ Web of Conferences 140, 06015 (2017) https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201714006015

Zeynep also created a video abstract: [ideally embed the video in the blog page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeHXaU4K6ks

We are already looking forward to Powders and Grains 2021 in Buenos Aires!